Category Archives: Newsworthy

When it rains, it pours

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Contrary to a lot of advice I was given before coming to Dubai, it does in fact rain in the middle east. We first saw some rainfall in Deira when we were staying there. It was plain to see how ill-equipped the city was for rain when a few mils of drizzle would fill the streets for a week or two.

The rain has been a lot more solid in the past week, now that we’re into what they call winter. It’s interesting to see how quickly some English colleagues have forgotten what it was like back home and complained on their Facebook status about the rain. On average, December is likely to see 15mm rain from 3-4 days. Not much to write home about.

But the city still acts like it’s a monsoon. The terrible driving on our roads gets even more terrible. And this makes the terrible traffic, even more terrible.

In fact one night this week when I was on the metro heading home, Elle called to say she was caught in traffic. So I caught a taxi from my station at the Mall Of Emirates. After driving through a few deep creeks which were formally roads, we hit a bad section of traffic that was not moving at all. It was under a kilometre from our place, so I cut the taxi ride short and got out – sporting my new Emirates umbrella – to set off to walk the remaining distance. Probably not the best idea. The footpaths in our neck of the woods are appalling. There was no room besides the cars for me to cross the busy intersection, so I set off to find a break in the construction of the overpass. An even worse idea. The place was full of mud, and while I did my best to only step on solid ground. On two occasions I stepped into a mud puddle and stepped out without a shoe. Fortunately there was just enough light to see and rescue the shoe before they were totally consumed by the puddle.

After this debacle I made it home in one piece, a little wet but so muddy, the dry cleaner’s going to wonder what happened.

The schools also struggle at this time. Poor Myles had an Achievement Assembly cancelled on account of the rain. I remember a couple of times while I was at school wishing that the rain would cancel school, all to no avail. Here it seems to be the norm.

Dubai and debt

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The whole GFC (or Global Financial Crisis for those lucky people not in the know), has reverberated through the media with as many points of view as climate change.

A few months after we arrived we heard plenty of stories about Dubai being in a whole lot of trouble.  We hoped it wasn’t on account of moving here. Despite all the gloom and doom of the time, most of it was deflected.  Not just from the local media which finds it impossible to publish a negative story, but also from the international press which first broke the “story”.

But over the last few weeks there has been a new scale of concern across the Emirate we now call home.  Stories broke in the UK about the failure of Dubai World, and the almost inconceivable debt levels. The news is now impossible to refute as it’s made  its way to our local media.

The newspapers still find plenty of positive stories about the refinancing and ongoing success of the region.  While the radio news doesn’t hide the severity at all.

Plenty of news exists about this around the web.  The following article though which was sent to me provides a little insight from an expatriate perspective.  While I don’t choose to totally subscribe to it, it provides an interesting and worrying possibility.

equally we were all united in the hope that Dubai’s unique economic, cultural and social experiment should be allowed to continue
The Guardian (6 December 2009)
http://m.guardian.co.uk/?id=102202&story=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/29/dubai-world-desert-gulf-investors
http://snipurl.com/tl3c6

Germany and the Berlin marathon – Sept 2009

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Late last month Elle and I took advantage of my parents coming to Dubai and jetted off to Germany for a long weekend on our own. Despite appearences, it wasn’t just for a dirty weekend, there was actually some purpose to the trip. I’ve set a goal to complete the “Big 5” marathons of the world, and decided that Berlin would be a good place to start.

The trip started off on a sour note, when we got bumped from our scheduled flight due to the extremely busy Eid long weekend rus of passengers.  For the uninitiated (like we were), the break of Ramadan means public holidays so a lot of people make the most of it and travel.

We managed to get on a flight later in the day, but had to change our plans as we missed our connecting flight from Munich to Berlin. We ended up arriving in Munich at around 9:00pm and then had to find a hotel for the night. We got completely confused by the train ticketing machine completely in German, so we decided our best bet would be to get a taxi to Munich to find a hotel. we probably should have done more research, as we discovered once we were in the taxi and on the road, that Munich city is actually quite a distance from the aiport and hotels are scattered all over the place.

The taxi driver tried to discourage us from trying the nearby hotels saying they would be fully booked due to the Oktoberfest.  His suggestion was that he drive us 55 Euros away, and then take us back to the airport in the morning – after another 55 Euros later.  But we insisted he stop at the Sheraton so I could see if they had room.  The lady at reception looked at me strangely and said, of course we have vacancies.

Something else surprised me at reception.  In Dubai pornography – anything close to it – is strictly illegal so you just don’t see it at all.  However, when I was standing at the hotel’s front desk, staring right at me was the cover model for Playboy completely topless!  I don’t think I’ve been overly interested in such images since I was 17, but having this strange sight was extremely distracting.  Quite a Europe welcome.  A similar thing greeted us in the rooms, where the TV had 1 movie channel and 4 adult channels.

The next morning we caught a flight to Berlin and managed to hit some random buttons on the ticket machine which spat out a ticket enabling us to catch a bus into the city. After asking a friendly policeman for directions, we eventually located our hotel.  We stayed in the Mercure de Charite.  With the terrible currency conversion between the UAE Dirham and the Euro it was disappointing to find that Charite didn’t mean we were staying in a shelter for the poor and destitute.  Actually we found the hotel through the marathon’s web site according to the distance to the start line – which was just perfect.

I had a few worries going into the marathon.  Most of my training has been through the summer period with frequent and mandatory water stops, so I wasn’t sure I had done sufficient distance training.  My concerns became reality at around the 25km mark when my legs started cramping terribly.  I was on track for a reasonable time until this point.  But with all the stops I saw all my goal times pass me by.  In the end I realised 4hrs was at risk so I really had to knuckle down.  Towards the end I felt terrible agony.  Everything was telling me to stop, except for the million+ spectators. In short it was an amazing experience.

Folllowing the race I was hobbling quite a bit.  I met up with Elle on the steps of the Reichstag where I had to sit for some time.   The Corona helped a little.  The walk from the finish line back to the hotel probably took 10 times longer than it did that morning. I slept extremely well that night.

We missed a day in  Berlin before the race due to the missed flight, so we decided to change our plans a little and try to see a few of the sights the next day then hit Munich and the Oktoberfest later in the day and night.  We did the Reichstag Dome tour, a look around Brandenburg.  Then we left the big smoke for the largest palace in Berlin at Charlottenburg. The whole area was beautiful, and something definitely worth seeing.

We caught the underground back to the airport and made our way to Munich.  By this stage we were seasoned veterans at buying tickets in Germany, but we didn’t need to.  A very friendly German guy gave us a tip that the tickets were priced so they were cheaper as a group of 3 or more – which he had the ticket for already. We got out of it for free, although we gave him 10 Euros anyway.  He was a lovely guy and kept us entertained the whole way.  We knew we were onto a good thing when he mentioned he works at the airport in IT and “it’s shit”.

Unfortunately my limping got worse, so we found our hotel and crashed.  Any thoughts of hitting Oktoberfest that evening were dashed by the allure of a nice warm bath.

We had plenty of time at the airport so I trialled all the local beers on display to try and compensate for missing Oktoberfest the night before.

The w’end flew by, and we arrived safe and sound in Dubai late on Tuesday night.

A large update

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I was without internet for so long, that once it was connected I forgot what it was I missed about it.  But I am now able to blog with some sort of regularity, I just have to get back into the rhythm.

As always, we’ve found a lot to keep us busy.  Let’s see how much of the past three months I can remember.

Moving to Tecom
We finally moved into our “permanent” Emirates accommodation in Tecom – Al Barsha.  There were many trials and tribulations in finally getting here, but they’re almost all forgotten now.   And besides, the delays I had were nothing compared to some of the guys before me.

Now it’s all finally happened, I can’t remember all the noteworthy events.  With the internet and TV connected, I can say we’re as settled in as we’ll ever be.  There was a few sad moments when we left our former apartment in Deira. Both Myles and Lewis had grown quite fond of our security guy, Manoj and our cleaners Sathi, and Kargenny.  Due to a mistake in translation we also called him “Clinian” for some time without anyone saying anything.  We’ve dropped in a few times since for a chai (local tea), which has made all parties happy.  In fact the first time we visited Manoj again he said plainly to me, “Please don’t forget me sir” which I could never do.

In Tecom it’s been nice to see other families around, and even most of the cabin crew have been great.  Myles has certainly started making an impression.  I took  the kids up to the pool area last week, and there was a lady and her daughter.  We got on well, and shared our room numbers so the kids could play together.  As we were getting out from the pool the lady had just finished saying it was nice to see other kids around when Myles headed back into the pool, yelling to me “I have to footy snot”.  With this he proceeded to lean down from the pool deck so he could blow his nose in the water – metres from the lady’s daughter.  It was amazing that they could see the funny side of it.  At the time I couldn’t, I was too busy looking for a large rock to hide under.  Myles and I had a good chat following this about proper footy snot etiquette.

Elle and Jo upstairs have taken some initiative and started a facebook group for the families of Tecom.  We probably had 40-50 people attend. It happened to coincide with Myles’s 5th birthday so he had a captive audience to help him get through his birthday cake.

School
We finally got a place for Myles to attend foundation school. He had been enjoying nursery, but approaching five he had the opportunity to step up, so from the 7th of September, he’s been a student of Regent International School. It was an interesting process.  When I first arrived in February I started calling around the different schools, and each and every one claimed to be full, and they had huge waiting lists.  Regent just happened to be the closest school to our apartment, it had all the prerequisite things on the web site we were looking for, and they had plenty of spaces.

Like most schools, Myles had to undertake a brief assessment. It turned out the lady was just looking for any learning difficulties or personality challenges. She tested him by drawing the outline of a car and getting him to put the wheels on, and to colour it. She may have started to worry a little when he proceeded to add a thin vertical line of each and every colour she had.  I can almost visualise her curious expression at him not simply colouring the car simply.  In fact, and she went on to ask him why he was doing it that way, which Myles had an instant reply “It’s the Rainbow Sheikh’s car”.  Classic.  Weeks earlier we had visit the Rainbow Sheikh’s free car museum – which clearly left an impression.

Internet connection
All I’ll say is, I shall never complain about the quality of telecommunication companies or the care they provide in Australia again.

Visitors
It has been good to have some visitors from home come stay with us.  We couldn’t really do it well in our last place, but there’s more than enough room now.  In August we had my brother stay, and early this month we had my parents stay for nearly a month.

We didn’t do too many things out of the ordinary, but it was good to give them both a taste of Dubai.  Corey especially so. He got to see a common site (not really) of a brand new Lamborghini dragging off a brand new Ferrari down Jumeirah Road.  It was something to behold, even for the BMW police car that was parked on the side of the road at the time.

Ramadan
We experienced our first ramadan period. It was certainly different to not be able to drink or eat outside during daylight hours.  But the time went extremely very quickly. We attended a few Iftars, which is the large buffet meal Muslims typically eat to break the fast.

Metro
As per their plan, the Metro was launched on the 09/09/09  for VIPs.  The day after it was for the rest of us, but it was too busy when we tried to catch it.  Unfortunately they’ve had a few teething problems.  In fact there was a story published that the metro had a glitch one night during Ramdan which prevented people from breaking their fast.  It was a nice story that some people apparently divided up the bags of shopping they had to share with their fellow Muslims.

The metro”s a great way to travel though.  It’s hard to believe how quiet it is.  Once our local station opens I’ll consider catching it to work each morning.  I’ve tried it once on the way, and there was a 30 min delay.  And on the way home twice there have been similar holdups. Probably a good reason to leave it a while to get over these hiccups.

Think of the irony

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the average UAE resident creates one of the largest carbon footprints in the world

Despite this tidbit from the latest issue of the World Bank’s Little Green Data Book, Abu Dhabi has put in a strong bid to host the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).

Guess it may have to be a case of do as I say, not as I do. 

Abu Dhabi has good case for Irena, says UN chief – The National Newspaper (26 May 2009)

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090525/NATIONAL/705249859/1010

Addendum:

Abu Dhabi was since selected to host the agency: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010085.html

#1 city in Middle East & Africa

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The results are in. Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living survey highlights that Dubai sits on top spot in the Middle East & Africa for Quality of life and Infrastructure. The many infrastructure improvements has helped it to climb six places in the rankings. Take that Abu Dhabi!!  (They’re down to 3rd position for Quality of living, and 4th in Infrastructure.)

The survey is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments.

However, after reading their guidelines to define quality of life, I worry about all the other cities surveyed. To be honest, I would probably give Dubai less than glowing scores for the majority of factors.

Incidentally, top spot worldwide is Vienna, Austria.

Also of note, Auckland, New Zealand tops the Asia Pacific stakes, just ahead of Sydney – Australia’s top most city. Oh dear, does anyone take this rubbish seriously? 😉

Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living survey highlights (25 May 2009)

http://www.mercer.com/referencecontent.htm?idContent=1340700

The Abu Dhabi vision

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Here’s a report from the Global City conference – held in Abu Dhabi – which highlights how the emirate is taking definite steps to promote a an effective brand that can better support its growth plans.

Abu Dhabi .. which never pursued the property-based strategy of Dubai, has been far less affected by the downturn. Its municipal leaders’ strategy is threefold – not to repeat the mistakes of Dubai, to diversify from dependence on oil, and to turn Abu Dhabi into a sustainable global city with a strong cultural element.


LocalGov.co.uk – Your authority on UK Local Government > LocalGov.co.uk – Your authority on UK Local Government > City leaders set out their vision for the future (22 May 2009)

http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=78575&layout=2

Yet another Dubai world record

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World's largest ambulance - in Dubai, of course

World's largest ambulance - in Dubai, of course

Dubai has a worrying fascination with having the world’s largest anything. The latest record may not be as awe-inspiring as the tallest building, largest aquarium, etc, but it’s no less interesting.  We now have the world’s largest ambulances.

Up to 20 people can be cared for in the fully equipped mobile clinic, complete with an intensive care unit and an operating theatre.

This is an extremely good idea considering how bad the Dubai traffic often is. And on top of this, from what I’ve seen, an ambulance with its lights flashing tend to get no preferential treatment at all.  At least now, patients can receive more comprehensive treatment before reaching a hospital.

Mercedes-Benz Citaro Converted To Ambulance And Mobile Clinic | The Motor Report Auto News Blog (18 May 2009)

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/31414/mercedes-benz-citaro-bus-takes-worlds-largest-ambulance-title/

The state of private education in Dubai

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I thought this was an interesting story discussing the findings of a report on the private education sector. Despite some of its assumptions, a telling fact is that 85% of students in Dubai are in private schools.


Getting what you pay for from a private education – The National Newspaper (18 May 2009)

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090518/OPINION/705179918/1080